CBS says it's discussing Super Bowl pregame interview with Trump

By Matt Bonesteel

The Washington Post|

Jan 10, 2019 | 2:15 PM

CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus said Thursday that the network has had talks with the White House about interviewing President Donald Trump during the Super Bowl LIII pregame show on Feb. 3, but that there will be "no announcement on that right now."

Trump, who has cut back on his criticisms of the NFL and its players this season, sat down with Fox's Bill O'Reilly for a prerecorded interview that aired during the network's pregame coverage of Super Bowl LI, which took place a few weeks after his inauguration in 2017. Last year, Trump did not do an interview with NBC when it aired the game.

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With a large television audience guaranteed each year, Super Bowl pregame interviews with U.S. presidents have been a semiannual affair ever since George W. Bush sat down with CBS's Jim Nantz ahead of Super Bowl XXXV in 2001. Bush's successor, Barack Obama, did one in every year of his presidency, and it became something of a yearly tradition to watch him avoid making a pick in the game.

McManus said Thursday that this year's Super Bowl pregame show will be four hours long, down an hour from last year's five-hour extravaganza on NBC.

"I promise you it will be the fastest-moving pregame show you've ever seen," he said.